Jacob Collamer

Jacob Collamer (8 January 1791-9 November 1865) was a member of the US House of Representatives (W-VT 2) from 4 March 1843 to 3 March 1849 (succeeding William Slade and preceding William Hebard), US Postmaster General from 8 March 1849 to 22 July 1850 (succeeding Cave Johnson and Nathan K. Hall), and a US Senator from Vermont (R) from 4 March 1855 to 9 November 1865 (succeeding Lawrence Brainerd and preceding Luke P. Poland).

Biography
Jacob Collamer was born in Troy, New York in 1791, and he was raised in Burlington, Vermont. He became a lawyer in 1813 and served in the militia during the War of 1812, becoming an attorney in Royalton and Woodstock after the war. In 1842, he was elected to the US House of Representatives as a Whig, and he was a strong supporter of the anti-slavery cause. He served as Postmaster General under President Zachary Taylor, and he resigned to allow Taylor's successor Millard Fillmore to appoint his own nominee. As a Republican, he was elected to the US Senate in 1854, and he was a strong supporter of Abraham Lincoln. He was an advocate of more stringent Reconstruction measures, and he died in office in 1865.